Ohio Mile

At 10 minutes before 10 a.m. on April 28, it became official. Garrell Patterson left the starting line in his Silverado pickup and arrived in the timing eyes 1 mile later at 132.247 mph. It was the very first pass at the Ohio Mile, and the first record. After nearly two years of work by the East Coast Timing Association and the city of Wilmington, Ohio, it all became real.

2/26Bob Merickle's '59 Nash Metropolitan Competition Coupe became the first car to run 200-plus mph at the Ohio Mile, turning 213.00061 mph with a former NASCAR Chevy small-block under the car's stretched nose. Bill Moss from Phillie runs the '71 Gremmie with a 1,200hp 383 Chevy with twin 71s. It's a drag car that runs 8.70s, and with 2.73 rear gears it went 207 mph!

The gravity of the moment carries a history back to 1995, when Bonneville Salt Flats racers John Beckett and Tom Sarda got sick of dragging their junk clear across the U.S. to run at the land-speed races at El Mirage Dry Lake in California and the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The two men established the East Coast Timing Association--a cross-country counterpoint to the Southern California Timing Association, founded in 1937--and located a runway in Moultrie, Georgia, where they conducted standing-mile racing under class rules similar to that of the SCTA. At the time, the standing-mile format was virtually unknown, though the concept was the same as that of El Mirage (1.3 miles) and Bonneville (5 miles): from a standstill, accelerate to the highest speed possible before the timing lights.

The ECTA almost instantly relocated from Moultrie to an old WWII runway in Maxton, North Carolina, that had been used to train glider pilots. The ECTA worked hard on that old stretch of concrete, clearing off many feet of debris and patching it repeatedly during 16 racing seasons from 1996 to 2011. Early last year, the ECTA learned that the 2011 season would be the last on the Maxton Monster Mile. The prospect felt like that of dismantling a family.

The job of holding it together fell to the ECTA board--Joe and Donna Timney and Keith and Tonya Turk. While there's no shortage of old runways in the country, there's plenty of resistance to racing: liabilities, noise, a general fear of the unknown. With runways, there's always the FAA and Port Authority folks who are much more comfortable with "no" than "OK." The secret, Keith says, is to find a city that wants the revenue from racing. The ECTA found that in Wilmington, where the local airport had been deserted by the DHL shipping company in 2009, creating a loss of 6,000 to 10,000 jobs, depending on who you ask. It also left the city's Airpark with a 9,000-foot runway that wasn't being used. It looked a lot like a racetrack but without the race cars. In the end, an estimated two-million-dollar-a-year boost to the local economy had those race cars showing up.

The first Ohio Mile event was capped at 175 entries. The location is central in the heat map of gearhead activity, and it didn't surprise us when registration sold out in two weeks. On race day, 169 entries showed up despite a 90 percent chance of thunderstorms. The Wilmington News Journal reported an audited 2,632 spectators over the weekend and claimed that license plates from 38 states were spotted, plus one from Mexico and a few from Canada. Hotels were sold out all over town. In all, a raging success--and the largest ECTA race ever.

Then the part you really care about: What's it like to race the Ohio Mile? Great. The surface is about 500 feet shorter than Maxton's, but it is so much smoother it's ridiculous. The concrete is slightly crowned and has 1?8-inch grooves that are a couple inches apart, perpendicular to the track. That helps the runway dry quickly but also makes the tires sound funny. There are some painted stripes at the starting line and a few big Xs painted downtrack, but those are the only traction challenges. The second half is slightly but noticeably downhill. The Ohio track is a little better than the Texas Mile and at least as good as the 11?2-miler in Maine.

As for records, the Ohio Mile brought a clean slate. The Maxton record books were locked at the end of the last meet of 2011, leaving behind a 200 MPH Club of 121 members (two of whom scored their 200-plus records at Moultrie, Georgia). Only 54 of those were in a car (as opposed to a motorcycle)--and that's over 16 seasons. The first Wilmington event wrapped with 24 entries into the Ohio Mile 200 MPH Club, 14 in cars. We expect many more in the season to come, with events held in June and July (before this issue went on sale) and on September 29–30. For more information, see ECTA-LSR-com.

Remember Garrell, who made that first pass at Wilmington? He tells us, "Fifteen months ago, I was in a wheelchair, and the doctors said I wasn't ever going to be better. But here I am." There's the hidden value in racing. Thanks to the city of Wilmington for helping make that type of personal accomplishment survive.

See The Video!

See video of the first Ohio Mile on HOT ROD Unlimited! Scan the code with your smartphone, or go to YouTube.com/MotorTrend and search the channel for "Ohio Mile."